Shared Google Calendar, iPhone and Outlook: how to share a calendar with your family

You probably already have a calendar on your phone that can be shared with your partner, and setting it up takes about ten minutes. A shared Google Calendar is the most common choice for families, but Apple Calendar and Outlook can do the job too. This guide explains how to share a calendar on each of the three, which permissions to pick, and where these tools start to struggle with family life.

One note before we start: menus move around between versions. If a button is not exactly where we describe, open the calendar's settings and look for the word "share".

Before you start: one calendar or several?

You do not have to share your whole personal calendar. On all three services, the tidier approach is to create a new calendar just for the family and share that one. Your work meetings stay private, and everything in the family calendar is, by definition, everyone's business.

It also helps to agree which service you will use. If both of you have iPhones, Apple Calendar is the natural choice. If you are a mixed iPhone and Android household, Google Calendar usually causes the least friction because it works well on both. If your lives already run on Microsoft accounts, Outlook is a reasonable option.

How to set up a shared Google Calendar

Sharing is managed from Google Calendar in a web browser. If you cannot find the sharing options in the phone app, open it on a computer instead.

1. Open Google Calendar in a browser and sign in.
2. In the list of calendars at the side, create a new calendar and give it a clear name such as "Family".
3. Open that calendar's settings and find the section for sharing with specific people.
4. Add the Google account email address of the person you want to share with.
5. Choose their permission level and send the invitation. They accept it from the email they receive, and the calendar appears in their list.

The permission level matters. When you share a Google Calendar with someone, you can let them see only whether you are free or busy, see all event details, make changes to events, or make changes and manage sharing as well. For a partner, pick one of the two editing levels. For a grandparent or childminder who only needs to know the plan, seeing all event details is enough.

The Google family calendar. If you have set up a family group in your Google account, Google creates a calendar called "Family" automatically, which members of the group can view and edit. It is the quickest route if you already have a family group. If you do not, sharing an ordinary calendar as described above works just as well.

How to share a calendar on iPhone

Apple Calendar shares calendars through iCloud, so the calendar you share has to be an iCloud one.

1. Open the Calendar app and tap Calendars to see your list.
2. Add a new calendar for the family, or choose an existing iCloud calendar.
3. Tap the info button next to that calendar.
4. Choose the option to add a person and enter their name or email address.
5. Decide whether they may edit the calendar or only view it.

The other person receives an invitation and the calendar shows up in their own Calendar app once they accept. If you use Apple's Family Sharing, a shared family calendar is created for the group automatically, and you will find it already in your list.

Apple Calendar sharing works best when everyone is on Apple devices. Someone on an Android phone can be given access, but the experience is much less smooth, so mixed households often prefer Google.

Outlook calendar sharing

Outlook calendar sharing works in a similar way, whether you use Outlook on the web or the desktop app.

1. Open the calendar view in Outlook.
2. Look for Share calendar in the toolbar, or right-click the calendar and look for sharing and permissions.
3. Pick the calendar you want to share. As before, a separate family calendar is tidier.
4. Enter the other person's email address.
5. Choose whether they can view all details or edit, then share.

One caution: if your Outlook account belongs to your employer, your organisation may restrict sharing with people outside the company, and you may not want family details in a work system anyway. A personal Microsoft account is the better home for a family calendar.

The limits for family use

All three are good calendars, and for many couples one shared calendar is all they need. They were designed mainly for individuals and workplaces, though, and families tend to run into the same few limits:

• Everyone needs to be in the same ecosystem. Sharing works best between accounts on the same service. One reluctant family member with a different set-up can break the chain.
• Events yes, everything else less so. A calendar is built for things with a date and a time. The permission slip to return by Friday, the shopping list, the photo of the school letter and the swimming club's term dates all end up in other apps or in a chat.
• It is not obvious who is responsible. An event tells you that something is happening, not who is taking the child there. You can write a name in the title, but that relies on everybody doing it every time.
• Nothing tracks whether it got done. A calendar event passes whether or not anybody booked the appointment or bought the present.
• Sharing is all or nothing per calendar. If the babysitter should see pick-up times but not the rest, you need a separate calendar, and separate calendars multiply quickly.

None of this means you should not use them. It means a calendar works best alongside a clear routine. Our guide to choosing a shared family calendar covers the habits that make any tool stick, and if the real issue is that one person is doing all the remembering, the article on the mental load is worth a read.

A calendar designed around families

Those limits are the reason we are building Duppy. It is a shared space for a family's appointments, tasks, deadlines, lists, notes and documents, and each commitment shows who is responsible. With one account you can belong to several groups, such as the family, the grandparents or the babysitter, so each group sees only what concerns it. It runs on both iOS and Android.

Duppy is coming soon and is not available yet. Until then, a well-organised shared calendar on Google, Apple or Outlook is a very good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

How do I share my Google Calendar with someone?

Open Google Calendar in a web browser, go to the settings of the calendar you want to share, find the section for sharing with specific people, add their email address and choose a permission level. They will get an email invitation to accept.

Can I share a Google Calendar with someone who uses an iPhone?

Yes. They need a Google account to accept the invitation. They can then use the Google Calendar app on their iPhone, or add their Google account to the iPhone's own Calendar app so the shared calendar appears there.

How do I share a calendar on iPhone?

In the Calendar app, tap Calendars, tap the info button next to an iCloud calendar and choose the option to add a person. Enter their name or email address and decide whether they can edit or only view.

Is it better to share my own calendar or create a separate family calendar?

A separate family calendar is usually better. Your personal and work appointments stay private, and everyone knows that anything in the family calendar concerns the whole household.